Bitter
by K-E-J Strawberry
Summary: The sins of others lay a heavy toll on those around them, and even the purest can become...I don't own SD Gundam Force.
1. Prolouge

Bitter

_**…Everything has a cause. Everything has a reason. Without them, there is nothing. Whether those create good or bad depends. It depends on your mindset, your point of view. Your point of view and your mindset stem from something.**_

_** Everything stems from something. Everything. Energy comes from light. Light comes from the sun, the sun is made of approximately 74.9% hydrogen, 23.8% helium, and a small percent of other assorted elements. Elements come from atoms, which stem from subatomic particles.**_

_** Everything is affected by everything. A seed can grow into a plant. But will it? Yes, if cared for and loved, and nurtured and nourished by the light. But…if it receives no light? No love? No care? If the dark is only given to it? Will it become a plant? **_

_** No.**_

_** It will shrivel and die.**_

_** But what if it is given love and care…but nurtured and nourished by the dark? Will is shrivel and die? Metaphorically, yes, less. **_

_** The darkest hearts come from the darkest places. **_

_** Love and care from any source can still be considered light, so it is still not the darkest. It's intentions, although dark, still have the cause of good in mind. It's a dying plant, alive, yet dead.**_

_** A plant given no love, no care, will of course start to die…but when the light comes to it and gives it nutrients, it will start to grow. A small, stunted plant, basked in the light yet held back by other reasons.**_

_** The plant given all the love, all the care, all the light? The liveliest, of course. Each day growing stronger. Pure. **_

_** The lightest hearts come from the lightest places. **_

_** The statements above can be flipped, inverted, twisted, and turned around. The light can be the dark. The dark can be the light. It comes from your mindset. Which comes from a cause.**_

_** Think of the seed…as nothing. Nothing, which is greater than all of the something combined. Because? It can be more than all of the some thing combined. It's potential is unlimited. Only when it starts to become something does its potential decrease…**_

_** What the seed becomes stems from a cause, something…**_

_** Never forget what you say to some one, because they'll never forget either…**_

_** Never believe what you do doesn't effect somebody, because it will…**_

_** Never disregard someone as unimportant, because they are…**_

_** Never underestimate somebody, because they can…**_

_** Never judge somebody, because no one knows who they really are…**_

_** When the darkness over comes all, it seeps into your pores, flows through your veins, tints your eyes, moves your mouth and forms words… When light is just a myth, a legend, a lie… When your hate is your identity, malice your guise, jealousy your game, and Bitter your name…**_

_** …Can the dead come back to life?**_


	2. Chapter 1

_**Neotopia. A place where all things live in peace, robots and humans, humans and nature, nature and robots. No matter how dark the situation, light always returns. Happiness always returns. **_

_**I'm going to change that.**_

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

"Hey…Hey Mom?" Shute's voice drifted through the late Sunday morning quiet, calling for his mother. He was jogging towards his house while holding his hand out which was holding a new cell phone, one which captain had gotten him for his last birthday. It was like his old one, capable of accessing functions in his roller blades, but newer, with a special function that Bell Wood and Kao Lyn had installed.

It was something akin to a small dimensional transport device, which allowed him to call his friends across the dimensions. Similar ones had been given to Zero, Princess Rele, Bakunetsumaru (who still didn't know how to use it), Genkimaru, and Captain, so they could always stay in touch.

And also(mainly) so that Shute would stop drawing gundams on his tests instead of solving the problems. Keiko had pulled some strings to make sure that her son would no longer be getting 0's.

"Yes, Dear?" Keiko replied as she sat on their patio, grading tests and other assorted papers. "What is it?"

Shute had by then made it to where she sat, still holding his hand out with the cell phone open and still on and listening to their conversation. "I got a call from Captain. He said he just got a new upgrade. Can I go to Blanc Base pleeeeeease? It sounds so cool! I really want to see it!" he was now jumping up and down in typical excited-kid manner, and was still rambling on about how much he wanted to go when his mom interrupted him.

She waved her arms for him to stop. "Okay, okay. You can go! Just be back in time for lunch."

"Yeah! Thanks, Mom!" He brought the cell phone back up to his ear and happily said "Did ya hear that? She said I can go-" he paused "-okay, see you there Captain!" He flipped down the cell phone's top half and started to run down toward the city. When he reached the gate at the front of his house, he quickly turned back towards his mom and called back "Bye Mom Thanks!"

She kindly smiled and waved, "Be safe."

_**You stupid brat.**_

_**You should be asking for her safety.**_

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Over in Ark, Genkimaru stood on the top of his Big Zam, arms crossed, under the tree which had continued to grow, bored as usual. The rest of the Genki Energy Force were also getting tired of the monotony which had plagued them for so long. Zapper and Grappler had argued so much, they had run out of things that they could think of that they could argue over.

"Err…the sun's too bright…" Zapper lifelessly said as he uninterestedly examined one of his machine guns in an effort to find something wrong with it, so he could blame someone for it and fight with them. At least it'd be better than just sitting in semi-awkward silence inside of the Big Zam.

"Idiot…we're not even outside." Grappler had about as much enthusiasm as the formerly mentioned, and much like Zapper, stared at his claws as he drummed them on the control panel in front of him, hoping that somehow they'd become interesting.

Zapper groaned, "Well it would be if we were outside…" but had pretty much given up on antagonizing his friend.

"Whatever."

"Dom wanna make big boom…"

"Shut up, Dom."

Back on the top of the walking tank, the Kibao Horde (plus Cobra) was having about as much fun as everyone else, lazing about on the grass. Several attempts had been made to create a lasting something that could alleviate the tediousness. One of them was some obscure version of baseball, which consisted of Kijuumaru shooting at Bakuhamaru, him hitting it with his hammer, and hoping that it didn't hit some poor Zako who got caught in the crossfire. This continued on for about a half an hour, until the ball came a couple inches away from crushing Cobramaru's head in (obviously leaving him in the worst mood). He had since then confiscated Bakuha's hammer and threatened to plug shut all of the holes in Kijuu's body.

Another attempt was to take Oshogo on a joyride. That failed miserably because the chariot was the only contempt one among them all, happily grazing on the grass and refusing to go anywhere.

Not even the Zakos were in their normally cheerful state. They didn't talk, and only between the moments of silence could you hear small sighs of "Zako…"

Genkimaru had experienced enough boredom to last him two or three lives. In a childish fit, he angrily stamped the ground and loudly whined "I hate this! Why won't something interesting happen! Any thi-" he stopped his tirade as he heard his cell phone ring. Reaching over his shoulder, he grabbed the red and gold means of communication, and looked at the caller I.D. It was Shute. He flipped it open and put it next to his non-existent ear. "Hey, Shute, what's up?" he first thing he noticed was static. The second was Shute's gargled and cracking voice.

"Ki…u!…hel…ne…to…a…p…ple…hu…A!..Ca…tain!…**Ca…tain!**"

Genki, not noticing the urgency in his voice, replied "Nani? You're breaking up. Stupid phone, doesn't do what it's supposed to-"

Then there was a sound. No, a screaming. No, a screeching. It was an ethereal sound, one that seemed to have no humanity. It wasn't a single voice, no, it was thousands, no, it was nothing, nothing but shriek of some unknown sort. It pierced the ears of everyone, immediately turning their full attentiveness towards this unknown noise. Nothing could be heard but it, it was everything, it was the whole world, and that world was a frightening place.

Then it died down, and there was quiet.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Everyone was silent for well over a minute after the sound had faded away. Even for those who had experienced war, been cast in a bloody ballet of clashing swords, disorienting explosions, and haunting, echoing screams, had ever heard something that terrible. War was real, whatever that thing was…couldn't be. And that was what was truly terrifying.

Eventually, Cobramaru had managed to gain some control of his body, and he shakily dropped down from the tree and landed beside the shaking Genkimaru. He placed his clawed hand on the cell phone and closed it, cutting the connection and ending the call. Very quietly, he said "G…Genkimaru?"

"You know how I said that wanted anything to happen."

"Hai…?"

"I take it back."

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

"Wha…what was that?" Bakuhamaru finally managed to ask.

"I…don't know…" Genkimaru admitted. "I got a call from Shute, there was static, I couldn't really tell what he was saying, and then…"

"_That_ happened." Kijuumaru finished.

Genki nodded "Yeah."

At that moment, the DA trio popped out of the Big Zam. Zapper yelled "What the Zako-Zako was that!", but behind the anger and annoyance you could hear a twinge of fear and concern.

"We…don't exactly know…" Mokinmaru replied.

It was Grappler's turn to yell. "What do you mean, 'You don't exactly know?' What kind of an answer is that!"

Joining in (he had been starting to feel left out) Dom boomed "Yeah! Bad Answer! Bad Answer!"

The Zakos included themselves at this point "But it's true Lord Dom! And Lords Gouf and Zaku! Lord Genkimaru got a phone call, zako! He was talking then that happened, zako!"

"So then you do kinda know, just answer me next time…" Zapper grumbled, then crossed his arms and started pouting, knowing that the one semi-exiting thing that had happened today couldn't even start a half-decent argument.

"Everyone?"

Everyone turned to Haganemaru, who looked as if he thought he was the only one who truly thought that they might have a problem on their hands (he wasn't) and said "This…whatever just happened, might be serious. Maybe we should report it to Kibaomaru-sama."

Cobramaru nodded. "I agree with you." His eyes moved over to Genkimaru, who still seemed a little shaken. "What do you think, Genkimaru-sama?"

Forced back to his senses by the ninja's voice, he nodded, pointed his hand off into the distance in the direction of Tenchijo, and shouted "Genki Energy Force, move out!"

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

After traveling for a good portion of the day, it was now approaching the evening, and the sun was now drooping lower in the sky tinted orange near the horizon. Everyone was anxious to tell the emperor about the day's earlier happenstance, so the journey was a quiet and tense one. They could now see Tenchijo's black outline in the distance contrasting against the orange of the evening. This helped to alleviate their stress, as they knew their journey was near over.

But it soon returned in twofold, as Genki's cell phone once again started to ring.

The kid musha gundam gulped, and hesitantly reached back and grasped the cell phone. Once again, it was Shute who was calling. Deciding he should indeed pick it up, he opened it, put it on speaker so the other could hear(The DA trio came out from the big zam's control room) and timidly answered "Hello?"

"Genkimaru?" came Shute's voice from the phone's tiny yet powerful speakers. "Ha, I'm so glad I reached you!"

"Shute…" Genki replied, relieved but at the same time anxious, "Did you try to call me earlier?"

There was a moment of silence, then a response told in such a soft voice only Genki could hear it.

"Na…Nani!" Genkimaru exclaimed. He dropped the phone in his shock. It disconnected. He was still for a moment, then he scampered onto Oshogo.

"Genkimaru-sama!" Cobramaru yelled after him as the child raced over to the castle on his father's chariot.

He didn't respond.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

As another day came to a close, the new emperor of Ark sighed, and closed his deep brown eyes in thought. The day had been a tiring one. Sometime during the mid-afternoon he had the feeling that something bad had entered a land. _"Something…is definitely…"_

His son barged into the room, slamming open the doors in a panic. He locked eyes with his father.

"Neotopia's been attacked!"


	3. Chapter 2

Shute ran (actually he roller bladed) towards the city, and towards Blanc Base. Eager to see his best friend's new upgrade, he traveled at a reckless pace, swerving around people and almost running straight into them a few times. He just barely dodged ramming into one of the mobile citizens of the police force. It turned around after him and yelled.

"Slow down, boy! You're going to hurt somebody! Be more considerate!" It waved it's fist after him. When Shute ignored him and didn't respond to his shouts, he turned back to his current work of helping a lost girl after one last shout of "Do you even care?"

"**Hmmp…do you, Shute?"** The speaker's eyes moved to his house. They focused in on his mother. **"I'm sure you will soon…hm, hm ,hm."**

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

"Hey, Captain, what is it? Huh? Huh? C'mon, tell me!" whined Shute as he excitedly hopped up and down. Chief Haro had picked him up in his custom white-painted Gunperry and brought him to Blanc Base. Like what happened in the city, he once again almost slammed into several people as he dashed towards Kao Lyn's lab. When Shute had finally reached his desired destination, he found Captain waiting for him there, his faceplate open so he could show his smile to his first and best friend.

"Okay, Shute. I don't think it will really be that useful, but I got…" Captain trailed off to let the suspense build up.

Already overly excited, Shute looked like he was about to explode. "Yes…?"

"Infrared Vision!"

"Nan…?" Shute questioningly replied "You got heat vision?"

"I knew you wouldn't like it." Captain disappointedly but nonetheless bluntly stated.

Shute, afraid he had upset his friend, waved his hands and sputtered "Nononono! I just thought you already had that!"

"That was just enhanced vision, allowing me to locate living things and assess their power. I also have night vision. But I didn't have infra red." He sighed. "I knew it would be pointless…should have just gotten more facial expressions downloaded."

"_Ummm…no."_ thought Shute. He once again tried to cheer up his friend. "I don't think it's pointless…it could , umm…" an idea click in his head "Help you find missing people! That would be helping!"

"Indeed it would."

Sensing his friend cheering up, he tried to lighten the mood even more with a joke. "And you know what else it could help you find…?" he smiled evilly, imagining how Bakunetsumaru would have reacted if he told his spur of the moment jest to him.

Captain, curious and unsure as to why Shute was so amused, decided to ask him. "What could it help me find?"

"GHOSTS!" Shute yelled into his face, hoping to scare him.

Captain seemed unaffected after his human buddy's lungs had run out of air, prompting him to end his shout. But, after a few seconds, his eyes shifted to "happy" and he laughed in his usual creepy fashion. "Silly Shute, ghosts don't exist!"

"**Heh…heh heh heh heheheheh! Hah… Do they?"**

Although disappointed that he didn't scare Captain, Shute was still glad that he had at least returned him to a pleasant mood. "They do! Remember how Baku's always getting scared of them?"

"Those were mmns, Shute."

Rolling his eyes, Shute replied "Whatever! But they do! Infra red cameras can record images of ghosts! I saw it on the discovery channel!" He seemed quite proud of the last part. "So, try it!" His voice became eerie once again. "Maybe they're a ghost next to me right now…"

Sighing, captain agreed to his friend's request. He looked towards Shute (who was striking a funny pose) and activated his new function.

"**Yes, Shute…Maybe you do…"**

Captain flinched back and turned off the special vision, visibly startled. He "blinked" several time, activated it again, and repeated the process several times.

By now Shute had taken notice of Captain's alarm, and dropped his stance. Concerned, he asked him "What's wrong?"

Turning on the infra red one last time, Captain stuttered "Sh…Shute.."

"Yeah…?"

"There is…there's someone behind you."

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Shute was silent for a moment, but then he burst out laughing. "Ha ha ha! That's really funny, Captain! You really got me good! Ha ha!"

"But, Shute…there really is…"

Still in disbelief, the amused boy snorted "If there was-is, a ghost next to me…What's it doing?"

"**This." **was the bloodthirsty remark.

"Wha…" was all Shute could say before all hell broke loose.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Just as Shute said the first unfinished syllable, the lights started flickering on and off, some rapidly, others slowly, many in varying patterns. Then the room started vibrating softly, like a gentle hum, which at first helped to sooth Shute's fears, but then grew to enhanced them as it increased in power to a frightening rumble, light that of a scorned beast which was retaliating against its enemy. Many of the tools cluttered on the shelves were shaken so much that they fell off of the metal shelves and clattered on the floor, adding to the already deafening noise.

Both Captain and Shute were silent, their bodies frozen by a mixture of fear and shock, and some other unknown chill…

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

"Ch-Chief? What's happening?" shouted the panicked Juli as she checked the status of Blanc Base. "All systems were working perfectly before, but all of a sudden, we started having blackouts, and now the base is trembling like a leaf!"

"**Yes…trembling…in fear, of course."**

Now further scared, Juli cursorily looked around, physically searching for the being whose voice had just announced itself to them, but mentally praying that she wouldn't find its owner.

She wouldn't want to see the person who's voice could pass so much terror onto someone in so little words.

Chief Haro, standing behind the shaking Juli, was now forced to hold onto a nearby console in order to stay on his feet, the shaking had grown so violent. Staying calm, he order Juli as best he could under these conditions. "Make sure that we are not under attack. Are we in a storm, one that just unpredictably appeared? Is the cable linking us to our satellite damaged?" Although he had started out very authoritative, he too found himself guessing the causes of this phenomenon as well.

"N-no sir, everything is fine, I can't find any reason-" Juli halted mid-sentence as alarms all thought the base started blaring, the ear-splitting tintinnabulations of them combined with the dizzying red glow of their sweeping lights conceiving a horribly disorienting atmosphere. But soon, above the whine and ring of the alarm bells you could heed the voice which had been unknowingly observing them for so long, laughing…

"**A ha ha ha ha ha! A Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha! AHAHAHAHAHA!"**

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

"What…what…?" was the only thing Shute could say. His body was struggling to stand, not only do to the quakes throughout the base, but also contributed to by his own fearful shivers. The boy was almost brought to his knees as when he heard the voice overtake the volume of the klaxons, mocking them, enjoying their fear, laughing…

A great tremor rocked the base harder than ever before, and finally Shute lost his balance and he fell toward the ground, but never hit it because captain and finally snapped out of his stupor and grabbed him before he was seriously hurt-the floor was carpeted by broken tools and other sharp objects. The floor became more hazardous as light bulbs began to blowout, some altogether exploding.

"We need to get out of here!" Captain yelled as he shielded his vulnerable friend from the falling glass debris.

"I can tell that, Captain!"

Turning on his night vision,(for without the artificial light from the light bulbs, the lab was black as night) Captain slowly but steadily started navigating his way towards the door, and out towards the park, where it would be lighter…

He hoped.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Perilously making his way along with many other Mobile Citizen and human employees to the center park, Captain, and Shute along with everybody in the base, was disheartened to see that the sky was no longer a soft sky blue.

As inexplicable as all of the earlier events, the sky had been tinted a blood red, the clouds, a tarry black. Fortunately, the tremors had died down to mild trembles every once in a while, and Juli had managed to disable the alarms so that Chief Haro could talk, and without the background noise, the voice seemed to lose its will to laugh, and had not spoken since.

"All of you!" loudly said Chief Haro over their murmurs "I know strange things have been happening, but we need to work together! If we stay panicked, the base will be in chaos and unable to defend Neotopia! It appears that whatever caused this has retreated…for now. I want all available personal scanning the city, the base, and the surrounding areas for enemies. I believe that we may be under an attack. I want Guneagle launched, and I want him surveying the area for any threats." He turned towards Captain "And Captain, I want you patrolling the city, if anything attacks, notify us and take necessary action. Take Gunpanzer with you."

Captain nodded "Yes" and then made a beeline for the re-equip ring to have heavy weapon mode attached, Shute following close behind.

"Shute!"

Shute reversed his direction to face the chief. "Yeah?"

"You have to stay here-"

"What? No!"

"Listen to me!" the chief shouted in an unusually angry tone. Shute quieted himself after realizing that Haro was in no mood for patty arguments. Continuing where he left off(in a kinder tone of voice) "It's too dangerous to have unnecessary personal wandering the streets. You could get hurt, and I don't want that to happen. Do you understand?"

Sighing, Shute replied "Yes…" But he was snapped out of his depression by his father's next statement.

"Don't worry, you can still help." If he wasn't wearing his mask, you could see him smile. "Just at something else. Why don't you help Juli monitor the area where Captain is? That way you can look out for him, and be out of harm's way."

Shute's once dour face brightened up at the chance of helping his friend. He nodded enthusiastically and darted through the crowd toward the main control center. Passing Captain on his way there, he reassuringly said to him "Do your best, Captain!" then ran off.

Captain, before disappearing behind the doors he went through as they closed, turned his head back towards Shute and replied "and do yours too."

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Guneagle, now flying above the city, refused to stray far from his idol. He knew that he should have been in areas without Captain and Gunpanzer's protection, and that he should be scanning the outskirts of the city for signs of enemy invasion…but, what had happened in the base…

Flashback

Guneagle laid in a heap on the floor, paralyzed by fear. He-he just couldn't comprehend what was happening. He was just minding his business, going to bug Kao Lyn to give him infra red vision too because it wasn't fair that only Captain got all the new upgrades, and then all of a sudden the lights start having a seizure and the base is rumbling like it was a volcano about to erupt. That, _that_ he could handle, but-but this…

This…figure, this…demon stood before him, smiling twistedly. At first he had thought it was one of the workers in the darkness, but when he approached it and tried to get their attention by putting his hand on their shoulder…

End Flashback

Guneagle trembled and stifled back a sob. He placed a quaking hand on his wounded arm…

Flashback

"Hey, you, are you okay…"

"**Don't touch me!"**

The ferociousness of the voice made him fly backward, combined with the stinging slap the figure had given him. He landed on the ground about five feet away hard, his head screaming with pain as it cracked against the metal floor. As he winced in pain, he wasn't able to see the figure advance until it was only two feet in front of his prone form. He tried to get up-

Tried, as he soon discovered that his body wouldn't move. Thinking it was because of his fall, he turned his head toward the person and started to yell at them. "Hey! What was tha-" And he soon discovered why his body was frozen as he looked at the form in front of him. As soon as he did, he found himself wishing he hadn't…he had never thought that he'd be so scared by one person, but now, here he was, lying on the floor, defenseless, cowering…

It spoke: **"Look at you. So terrified you can't even move. You're **_**pathetic.**_** Hm. Go, continue on cowering like a mere frightened child, and let them know how**_** useless, **_**how truly **_**pathetic**_** you are."**

Unable to speak, barely able to breathe, Guneagle was forced to watch it berate and belittle him in silence.

The demented grin widened to form a twisted equivalent of the face of someone about to give a gift to their best friend.** "You're so-" **it made sure to put extra emphasis on all the most hurtful words **"**_**useless, **_**so **_**pathetic**_**, so **_**cowardly**_**…"**

"…**That you deserve to die!" **Twisting and mutating, the flesh of its hand and arm stretched out and raced towards Guneagle's head, hideously deformed claws which had once been fingernails ready to impale him.

"_No…No…" _Guneagle could only think those few words as the hand grew ever closer, from his perspective it seemed to move in slow motion. _"I can't die!"_ He grew panicked at the thought of death, and at that threat he was able to move. Scrambling to move out of its path, he pushed himself off of the cold floor and started to move to the side of the abandoned hallway.

But he couldn't clear it in time, and his arm farthest from the wall was rended by the speeding claws, and he was knocked back to the floor. Pain from the gashes once again immobilized his body. The arm receded back towards its owner and resumed a normal form.

"**You think you've escaped me? No, you are going to die the next time we meet." **The smirk it wore as it said the previous statement was replaced by a sadistic smile. Alarms started going off around them, and all throughout Blanc Base. **"Heh heh heh…The bells toll for your demise." **It started to fade away into black dust, and as it did, you could hear it laughing at him, at everyone...

Guneagle laid still, bleeding in the hallway. rend

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

"Guneagle?" Juli's voice drifted through the hallway.

Dazed, Guneagle sat up, slowly looking around for her. He weakly called out "Juli?"

"Guneagle?" He now saw Juli running as fast as she could around the broken glass towards him, flashlight in hand. When she reached him, she kneeled down by his side and inspected his arm. "How did you get this?"

"I, uh…was trying to fly out of here when the lights started exploding. One, uh…blew up and the shards scratched my arm." He laughed sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head with his good arm. "Guess I should be more careful!"

Juli nodded and sighed "Yes, you should. Guneagle, can you fly without getting this treated? We really need your help…"

End Flashback

"…eagle…Guneagle?" Captain's voice came over the com link, distracting Guneagle from his thoughts. "Are you okay? You seem 'out of it', as they say."

Guneagle rapidly shook his head from side to side to clear his mind so he could better focus and replied "Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Just that my arm got messed up during…whatever happened at the base."

"Maybe you should return…"

"No, no I can't! I have to help you guys!"

"**So useless…"**

"You can go back if you want to…"

"No, I d-don't!"

"**So cowardly…"**

"Guneagle…" Captain's voice was full of concern "No one is forcing you to do this. You're injured, you should have Kao Lyn go fix your arm. And I understand if you're scared…"

"Are you calling me a coward!" Full of a volatile mixture of rage and humiliation, Guneagle flew away to the opposite side of the city, yelling back at his concerned friend. "I'm not scared! I can handle things by myself!" He turned off his com link.

Captain sighed and transformed out of his Gunvehicle Mode looked around, scanning the area. "Nothing here…all the citizens are inside buildings…And Guneagle just turned off his com link."

Gunpanzer just shrugged (as best as he could in his tank-like mode) and said. "He's probably just upset that you said you knew he was scared. You know he likes to act all confident and courageous and stuff like that 'cause he thinks it's 'cool'. Can't say I blame him, that stuff was downright scar-ry!"

Captain was silent for a moment, thinking, then responded "Yes."

A shadowed figure stood in front of him. It said: **"Do you want to see something scarier?"**

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Keiko stood on the porch, staring up towards the sky, specifically looking at the only cloud which remained white. She tightly clasped her hands together in front of her chest. She hadn't been able to contact Shute nor Mark ever since the base had started shaking. She had first thought that they had been having technical difficulties, but once the sky started turning red…she knew something was wrong. Very wrong. "Shute, Mark…Please be safe…_please!_"

She thought she heard an explosion coming from the city. She lowered her head so that she would be able to tell if it was just her imagination or-

Keiko, upon witnessing several humongous black and tarry serpentine tentacles stab Blanc Base, really wished her imagination was that vivid.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Captain reeled back. "How-how did you?" he then remembered the voice he heard at the base. "You!" he pulled out his beam rifle and pointed it at it.

Gunpanzer transformed to his more human like form. "Captain? What're you doing? Don't point that at a civilia-"

"That's no civilian!" interrupted Captain. He narrowed his eyes at her. "What did you do? Surrender immediately or I will be forced to use force!" He once again gestured his rifle towards it.

"**You think that toy scares me?" **Seemingly cloaked by darkness, you couldn't make out any details of the figure's appearance, and the voice was distorted and heavy.

"I'm warning you one last time! Surrender immediately or I will use -" his rifle exploded. "Wha…What?"

"_**This**_**"**__**it hissed "is something to be scared of!" **

The wind started to howl and twist around them, giving Captain and Gunpanzer the sensation of being grabbed and pulled at by invisible hands. The two backed up against themselves, unsure what course of action to take. The figure disappeared silently, leaving nothing, no trace of itself behind. _"Like a ghost…"_ Captain thought.

"Captain you know that…thing?" Gunpanzer questioned.

Shaking his head, Captain replied "No, its voice just reminded me of one I heard at the base. One I heard before all of this started." he paused, then added "I'm ninety-eight point seven two percent sure."

The wind started forming shapes, and just like how the two felt it took the forms of hands, all reaching towards them. One grabbed the outer armor of Gunpanzer and started crushing it, leaving a hand-shaped mark in the metal. He swung his arm away, knocking some of the hands away. Seeing he had made an opening, he transformed back into his vehicle mode and yelled out to Captain "Come on!" Captain jumped back into him as Gunpanzer tore out of there.

Captain radioed the base. "Blanc Base, do you read me?"

Shute's voice came over the com link "Captain, what's going on down there? Are you guys okay?"

"We saw some strange figure down here that had the same voice as the thing at the base, then it attacked us and disappeared. It broke my beam rifle."

Gunpanzer swerved suddenly and turned back towards where the wind had been. "What in world is going on?" Captain jumped up onto his teacher's shoulders and started scanning the area Gunpanzer was staring at.

"There's some strange energy emitting from that area! Shute, can you tell me what it is?" Shute started to reply but his voice was soon drowned out by a loud buzzing sound, its frequency causing the two's heads to ache. "What…what is that…?" From his scanner, he could see the previously dispersed energy coagulating and forming crude blobs. "It's…" his eyes widened in realization, then shock and fear. "It's…alive?…It's….It's…!"

Gunpanzer, annoyed by the gundam's unspecific remarks, interrupted "What's it doing, Captain!"

Finally getting to the point and overcoming his stupor, Captain shouted over the noise, which had become more warbled and sounded like it was coming from everywhere, but was strongest near the energy spike. "It's creating-"

An explosion of black energy ripped through the air, prematurely silencing him. Both gundams were blown back several yards, skidding along the pavement with sparks following in their wake. As they looked up towards the epicenter of the blast, the duo froze.

"Those!"

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Juli furiously typed on the computer, surveying several monitors with the help of Shute. "Can you reach Captain or Gunpanzer?" she asked while continuing to type and attempt to understand what was going on in Neotopia.

"Captain? Captain? Gunpanzer? Anyone? Guneagle?" Shute repeatedly tried to reach his friends, but he couldn't reach them with the static over the channel. _"I hope they're okay…"_ "I can't. What's going on down there? And what is that energy?"

"I'm not really sure, it's different than anything I've ever see…W-wait a minute…" Juli trailed off as she squinted at the monitor in front of her.

Shute turned around in his chair to get a better look at what had caught her interest. He peered over her shoulder. "What is it?"

Still fixated on the readings in front of her, she hazily replied "These readings…this energy…it's very similar to the type recorded from our battle with General Zeong."

"What? What does that mean?" yelled Shute. "What does it mean? What's happening-?" He cut himself off as Juli gasped. "What's wro-"

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

"What…What are they?"

Flying, crawling, slithering: in all forms they emerged from one solitary black mass, palpitating like a fearful heart with its own sentience. Resembling bird, lizard, wolf, and horse-like entities, they were all similar with a jet-black color scheme and leathery skin. Each type of them had pore-like openings located somewhere on their bodies, but the colors varied depending on the species. Red: the wolves. Yellow: the horses. Orange: the lizards. Blue: the ravens.

As they continued to manifest themselves, Captain explained as much as he could to Gunpanzer. "They're physical manifestations of some strange energy, I don't know much more, and I can't reach Juli for more information…" He had just noticed the collective noise of growls and hisses.

The black "heart" had disappeared, but the twisted representations of animals had remained. They had assembled themselves into groups, with the wolves shaping into an arrow facing the gundams. One at the head of the group was bigger than the rest, almost as big as Gunpanzer. Covering it's shoulders were large spikes that stuck out and back, and the spikes continued down it's spine and flexed with its every movement. A set of sharp red and black razors covered each set of claws, increasing their lethality. The others were all leering at the gundams, but spread out away from them. The horses had arranged themselves to the left of the wolves, the lizards to the right, and the ravens were hovering above all and slightly back, fanning out into an arch shape. As the two inspected the creatures more closely, they noticed that each set had its own leader, superior and larger than the rest.

"Captain…what should we do?" asked Gunpanzer quietly, afraid any loud noises would antagonize them and trigger an attack. Captain started to whisper a reply back, but he was interrupted when the lead wolf laughed and spoke.

"**Ha ha ha. You can do whatever, but it's not going to make any difference. You're all…" **Dark swirls of energy started to spiral around him as he continued to laugh, the lead horse and lizard joining in. In the mists of all of them, more dark energy began to collect into globular drops which then were sucked together by an invisible force, quickly and violently twisting into a large tree-like mass with eight prongs coming off of the top, and began anchoring itself into the ground with bladed tentacles.

The energy began to spiral out of control, twisting and whipping in all directions. Windows of nearby buildings began to shatter, and the ground began to shake in a way similar to what had happened at Blanc Base. Suddenly the wolf stopped his laughing and became very serious, staring at the two right in the eyes. As he continued to lock eyes with them, his features slowly contorted with rage, which tainted the atmosphere and caused it to become both nerve-racking and oppressive. Finally snapping, he roared out with terrible force **"You're all doomed!"**

In a split second, all of the groups dispersed, running through the city. Except for the wolves, which charged towards Captain and Gunpanzer, who got up(Gunpanzer once again transformer into his human like form) ready to fight to their deaths to protect the city.

From the prongs of the tree came tentacles made of black, tarry flesh, one from each prong of the tree. They were covered in pores which glowed in the colors of the all of the animals. Thick as the two central tower pylons which held up the circular plates which branched off of it, they stretched out far enough to reach the farthest outskirts of the city, and Blanc Base. Three of the eight shot up into the sky towards the city's symbol of hope, and pierced right through it's palm as if it's armor hadn't deterred its attack at all.

After slashing away one of the smaller wolves, Captain stared up at the base, his home, in horror. He imagined Shute, Chief Haro, Juli, the Gundivers…he shook his head to clear his thoughts so he could better concentrate on the fight at hand and protect the city. _"Shute and the others are strong-"_ another wolf was torn by his beam saber _"They can protect themselves." _Hewas forced to duck under the flying bodies of several apparently dead wolves that had been blasted away by Gunpanzer's missiles.

"Captain, we need backup! There's too many of 'em, they're wrecking havoc all over the city!" After smacking away more of the black wolves, he jumped over to Captain. "Have you seen Guneagle? We need him!"

Firing his missiles in sync with Gunpanzer, he replied "I still can't reach him, or the others! I hope they're all-" He broke off and looked up as a loud screeching sound was heard. The tentacles had begun to wrap around Blanc Base, and were slowly starting to crush it. A black blur ripped through the sky; Captain blinked, thinking he was seeing something, but he realized with horror as he heard a shattering crash that it was one of the tentacles. It and the remaining five had begun to whip around, slamming into the city and crushing buildings. "No…No!" Captain yelled as he charged at the group of wolves, which by the combined efforts of the two had been forced into a single group. "We Have to stop them!"

"Right you are!" Gunpanzer(back in his vehicle mode) shouted back and charged towards them at full speed. Captain jumped in him to get out of the way, knowing what he planned to do.

The head wolf, also knowing this, was able to jump out of the way in time, escaping before he like his followers was crushed by Gunpanzer. He landed on a roof of a small shop near them and growled as he watched the bodies of his wolves melt away into black tar, which slowly started to evaporate. He whipped his head around towards Captain and Gunpanzer, who stood poised to attack him, and sneered. **"Better get going, my brothers are tearing your precious city apart."** His voice became sarcastic. **"Oh, wait, I'm sorry. We weren't done here?"**

"You stupid hypocrite! You just said that you didn't wanna fight us, now you're all…"Gunpanzer trailed off with a small humorless "eh-he."

Behind the lead wolf, even more black wolves were beginning to form. Once about fifteen had solidified out of the unknown black substance which they came from, the lead wolf finished speaking. **"Were we?"**

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Guneagle was flying near the outskirts of the city, his back turned from where Captain and Gunpanzer were. He was staring up at the sky, at Blanc Base which was slowly being crushed by whatever those black things were, terrified, both for his friends and himself. Petrified, he simply floated in the air until he was forced to dodge another tentacle, just now taking notice of them. The young gundam flew back in the direction of the city, now wondering about the safety off the ones on the ground. _"Captain and Gunpanzer…I hope they're all right…Huh?"_ Gunfire crackled through the air catching Guneagle's attention. _"Maybe it's them!"_ "Hey! Captain! Gunpanzer!" Speeding toward where he had heard the noise, he felt a spark of hope knowing that the city's savoir might still be alive. He called out again, this time receiving a response.

"Guneagle!" Overjoyed to hear Captains voice, Guneagle whooped and twirled in the air as he passed over a few taller buildings that had obscured his vision. Just as he had finally cleared them he happily shouted out "Yo Captai…" His spirits sunk as they had many times before during this day. Although he had confirmed that Captain and Gunpanzer were still alive, he had also confirmed that Neotopia, and himself, were doomed.

"Guneagle!" Captain blocked one wolf's lunge and shoved it away with his shield, spinning around as he did so and slicing another's side open in the process. "We need your help!"

Gunpanzer slammed more away from himself, but was quickly being over taken by them, but was able to point for a split second at the leader, who was calmly observing the battle form the roof he had not needed to move from, before smashing a wolf lunging for his face down onto the pavement, a sickening crack notifying every one that something inside of it had snapped, but what remained a current mystery. "Bring down the big one! He's making more and controlling them!"

Snapped back to his senses by the request, his determination to help that seemed to thrive in every Neotopian gundam overcame his fear and he sharply replied "Yes sir, Captain!" and pivoted himself to look were the older gundam had pointed-

And promptly froze. Staring up at him were eyes quite similar to those that had stared at him back at the base. And below them was a malicious grin that brought one thought to his mind. _**"Oh"**_ it said _**"Hello…"**_

Overcome with both the non-stop assault of the wolves and the shock that Guneagle, usually so brave and eager to help, would freeze up so suddenly as his comrades were being attacked, Captain shouted up at the younger, concerned about his condition. "Guneagle? Guneagle are you all right? Gunegl-!" He was cut off as the combined force off two of the wolves charging against his shield pushed him back against the wall of the leader's chosen point of observation, his head cracking against the metal painfully.

Also reaching the limit of his strength, Gunpanzer was faring no better as he just barely managed to keep the wolves from sinking their four-inch long teeth into any vital parts of his body. "Come on-ugh!" a wolf bit into his left hand and began to jerk his head side to side, intent on literally disarming him "-Kid! We need your…" As he felt a painful tug on his arm's socket, his patience snapped. "Would you just do something useful for once!"

Immediately Guneagle's body jerked around toward his helpless friends, dashing towards them…and passing over them without so much as a single glance, let alone a second. "Kid…?" Not expecting this reaction, both cornered (Gunpanzer was forced against the same wall as Captain) gundams gaped as they watched him fly away from them. _"That's…" _Captain thought _"Not the direction towards Blanc Base…But if he's not getting help…Why? He wouldn't…"_ He shook his head. "That's not true. Guneagle wouldn't-"

"He did." Gunpanzer said what Captain had refused to believe, even thought it was true. "He ran away."

"**Ha ha ha…Little coward…"** The pack's leader once again spoke and looked down from his precipice at the two. He laughed darkly and sneered. **"It's fun to see one so…overconfident, break."**

Angered by both the truth in Gunpanzer's words and the belittlement of Guneagle, Captain shouted out "You're evil! And you're wrong! Guneagle's not a coward!" Unfazed by the outburst, The wolf's only answer was a glare and a scoff.

"**Htmp! Tough talk for someone in your position. Cornered like the prey you are."** He causally surveyed his remaining pack, tacking note the one missing, then smiled as he crouched down as if preparing to lunge, his warriors growling at the near-helpless pair as they moved in. **"Now"** he confidently growled **"Let's end thi-Grah!"** Gunfire peppered the area, most of it focusing in on the leader, causing him to wince off balance and lead away to a more sheltered location.

"What?"

"You guys?"

"Gunchopper Squad, reporting for duty!"


End file.
